http://missamericafoundation.org/scholarships/
There is also a teen scholarship level and some money available at the state level.
It is but one example of what it would take to earn enough money through outside scholarships to fund a college education. Some of the outside scholarships also have need component to them.
There are also regional scholarships that are very competitive, and may be a full scholarship if used at a preferred school. See http://www.danielsfund.org/scholarships/
@planner03 I found this link where this lady went to Vanderbilt by applying for outside scholarship.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-i-earned–500-000-in-scholarships-212534881.html
@TomSrOfBoston yea my friend’s sister is going there this fall and she says the Theatre program is very good there.Will definitely put that on my list of school I want to go.
If you’re interested in film & theatre, that makes it even more challenging - loans need to be kept to a minimum, since your post-grad earnings would be uncertain.
If your parents can afford to pay for college, but are not willing to, that also makes things difficult, because you would not qualify for need-based aid. Your eligibility for need-based aid depends on how much money your parents have, not how much they’re willing to pay. So if they have a lot of money (either income or assets), need-based aid would be limited, even if they won’t pay a penny.
But that doesn’t mean that you won’t have options. There are plenty of schools with good theatre and/or film programs that offer merit aid, and some of them are quite generous. They may not all be the tippy-top schools with the best known theatre/film programs, but they’d be affordable, and that’s what’s most important.
**Here’s what you need to do:
Keep your GPA up in high school** - you’ll need a strong GPA to qualify for merit awards.
Prep for the PSAT, which you’ll take in the fall of your junior year. It’s not just a “practice SAT” - it’s the test that determines which students will be awarded National Merit Scholarships. If you get a high enough score on the PSAT to qualify as a National Merit Scholar, that’s HUGE - you’d be eligible for some amazing scholarships! (Fordham, for example, offers a competitive National Merit Scholarship award. If you get it, that’s a full ride . . . and Fordham has a campus at Lincoln Center in New York City for their performing arts students!!!)
Prep for the SAT (or ACT), and take it in the fall of your junior year. That will give you plenty of time to take it again, if you need to. And a strong score on the SAT/ACT is an absolute MUST if you’re looking for merit aid!
You need to get some significant clarification from your parents. If they really won’t pay a penny, or complete the financial aid applications…then you have different options.
What do your parents want you to do,when you graduate from HS? Do they want you to get a job, go to college, live in their basement? What?
In terms of need based financial aid from colleges, they will need to fill out at LEAST the FAFSA, and for places like NYU also the CSS Profile. In addition, colleges will require that your parents link their FAFSA to the IRS Data Retreival Tool or provide a tax transcript. Sounds like they won’t do that either.
So…what DO they want you to do after you graduate from HS? You have a couple of years to figure this out with them.
You say your parents will not pay. Dime for you to attend college, and they won’t complete the financial aid application forms…then none of these schools will be an option…NONE of them.
What schools are these? Lots of M schools? Which ones do you men?
You are from Illinois, which doesn’t have M schools. So these are like,y OOS public universities. They will not be affordable either with only you paying the bills.
The chances of winning sufficient outside scholarship money are terribly slim. Yes, some media outlet reported one kid. But we’ve been watching this on CC for years and most might get a few thousand.
If true (and not a pitch to buy her book or her formula,) her Amazon bio says, “She has been recognized as a Coca-Cola National Scholar, a Gates Millennium Scholar, and a U.S. Presidential Freedom Scholar, among various other scholarships, grants and awards, including being named Miss Indiana Teen USA and winning two Junior Olympics gold medals in gymnastics.”
Those awards are not sitting around waiting; they take considerable skill to vet and master. Pus, often some adult mentoring and guiding a kid. They aren’t “come one, come all.”
That’s why posters will advocate you find a Plan B, C and D.
I agree your best bet is to do very very well on the PSAT to have options. If your parents won’t pay for college, considering you aren’t allowed to borrow more than 5.5K, essentially you can’t go to college unless you attend on a full ride somewhere and these are very hard to come by. The few that still exist are reserved for NMFs.
Good news for your parents (and you): you can major in film/theater, AND go to med school later! 
If they’ll only fund a premed (keep in mind about 80% premeds never make it to med school), you can be a premed. Although music majors do very very well for med school admissions but I don’t have stats for film/theater majors, I don’t know that you’d be disadvantaged as a film major. In reality, you can major in ANYTHING for med school. In fact you can major in anything and then do a postbacc program that specializes in science and will bring you up to speed for med school.
Premed isn’t a major. It’s just a declaration you make that you’ll take, over your 4 years, the following classes: 2 each of English, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biology , Physics + 1 semester each of Psychology, Sociology, Biochemistry, 1 semester of calculus and 1 semester of statistics, 1 diversity-focused class.
Considering that at mos colleges you have to take 2 semesters of English, social science, and science, plus at least one semester of math and one diversity-focused class anyway… being premed adds 7-8 classes to your whole program, whatever it is.
Med schools love kids with uncommon profile, who can hack it in the sciences as well as the arts.
Speaking of National Merit scholarships, one of the most generous awards in the country is at University of Oklahoma. Sounds boring, right? Well, it turns out they have one of the two oldest and most established theatre programs in the country. (The other is Yale.) Their program is ridiculously competitive - auditions are required, and there are hundreds of applicants for very few spots. But if you could get in, and qualified for their NMS (National Merit Scholar) award, it would pretty much be fully paid for! And the award would cover FIVE years of tuition, so you’d have plenty of time to do those premed classes (as a gift to your parents) if you wanted to.
@MYOS1634 There are still quite a number of full rides and they are not reserved for NMSF’s. They are, however very competitive.
Another thumbs up for Univ. of Oklahoma for theater (esp. musical theater).
As @lookingforward says, these scholarships are very competitive and finding/applying to them can be a full time job. Even @CourtneyThurston, a frequent CC poster who has snagged way more outside (and school-based) scholarships than anyone I’ve heard of, recommends having a plan B and focusing on school-based aid.
The reality is, this just isn’t possible. Either your family can afford NYU with your current FA package, or they can’t.
The reality is, you can win almost all the major national scholarships and still not be able to afford that school. I wouldn’t be able to afford NYU, and I won Coke, Burger King, Jack Kent Cooke, GE-Reagan, and 9 other outside scholarships.
I do have one low-income friend at NYU, but that’s because she won Gates (unlike JKCF, I don’t think they have an annual award cap?) in addition to Buick ($25k/yr).
Gates is a dead program now, and Buick alone isn’t enough to pay for NYU.
@CourtneyThurston I believe the OP to this thread has not yet been accepted to college…and is still a HS student. She wrote :
Ah. Then, if you can’t afford NYU with the FA package you’re eventually given*
But honestly I recommend you pick new dream schools. Preferably a few that give merit for students with reasonable but not nearly-impossible-to-achieve stats.
Good article.
A lot of kids confuse wanting NYU with wanting NYC. There used to be short questions on the supp that I felt strongly were meant to weed this out.
Thing is, lots of the colleges near NYC (a number in NJ) have good arts/film/theater programs that make use of the closeness to the city. NYU is not the only game.